Tuesday 15 February 2011

NASA unveils first photographs from Comet Tempel 1 Flyby


NASA unveiled the first photos from Comet Tempel 1 flyby on 2011 Valentine's day by Stardust-NExT mission. Tempel1 was first visited back in 2005 during Deep impact mission, where a space probe was crashed into Tempel1 to basically study its composition, which as per NASA's stated mission objective was "To study the pristine interior of a comet by excavating a crater more than 25 m deep and 100 m in diameter". The following flyer gives an insight into what the previous mission was about.

 Deep Impact Fact Sheet (PDF Format - Color)

Comet Tempel1 orbits the sun once every 5-1/2 years. The objective of this mission is to study the changes in Comet's exterior since the last impact in 2005.

The photo below shows Tempel1 during the recent flyby courtesy NASA

NASA

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